News Bits 'n Pieces

Tax relief for the oppressed wealthy

The NYT writes about a tax break for wealthy real estate developers and investors in the recently passed $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus package: “It also includes a potential bonanza for America’s richest real estate investors. Senate Republicans inserted an easy-to-overlook provision on page 203 of the 880-page bill that would permit wealthy investors to use losses generated by real estate to minimize their taxes on profits from things like investments in the stock market. The estimated cost of the change over 10 years is $170 billion. ..... Among the possible beneficiaries of the change are real estate investors in President Trump’s inner circle.”

That bill is here. I think, but am not sure, that this is the sentence on page 203 that's worth about $17 billion/year in tax breaks for oppressed people like the president: “(1) Section 461(l)(2) of the Internal Revenue 2 Code of 1986 is amended by striking ‘‘a net operating loss carryover to the following taxable year under section 172’’ and inserting ‘‘a net operating loss for the taxable year for purposes of determining any net operating loss carryover under section 172(b) for subsequent taxable years.”

'Nuff said.

Suppressing the vote Trump Party style

Wisconsin held its primary yesterday over objections of democrats who wanted to delay the vote. Both the Trump Party-dominated Wisconsin supreme court and the Trump Party-dominated US supreme court said that the vote must go on as scheduled. To deal with the coronavirus threat, the city of Milwaukee reduced the number of polling stations from 180 to five. Milwaukee is where about 70% of the state’s African American residents live.

The NYT writes this about the electoral travesty: “In Milwaukee — where the number of polling stations was reduced from 180 to only five — voters tried to exercise proper social distancing as they waited, in some cases, for more than two hours. But in other areas of the state, including Madison, suburbs like Brookfield, and more rural areas like Beloit, the voting process was altered but not totally disrupted, with options that included curbside ballot access and poll locations that were more fully staffed. ..... In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers and his fellow Democrats pushed for a range of changes to the primary process, including rescheduling the election and switching to mail-in voting. But Democrats faced a wall of resistance from Republicans who saw political advantage in leaving existing procedures intact.” ..... To calm people's fears, republican legislative leader Robin Vos, dressed in full protective gear (gown, gloves and mask) told reporters that "you are incredibly safe" to go out and vote. Due to a state supreme court race, the Trump Party was desperate to win this election. They choose to suppress democratic votes as best they could. Vos was the key legislator for forcing the public to engage in at risk voting.

That outrage is another significant Trump Party step toward a corrupt tyranny-oligarchy, single party rule and the total collapse of the rule of law.

Bad campaigner

Shadowproof reports that Joe Biden and his campaign did not say anything about the Trump Party’s strongarm tactics to suppress democratic votes yesterday: “Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his campaign never called for the Wisconsin primary to be postponed. In fact, they were silent as Republican judges on the state’s supreme court and the United States Supreme Court issued decisions that forced officials to hold the primary during a deadly coronavirus pandemic. Yet, after voters risked their health on April 7, Biden appeared on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time,” and stated, “My gut is we shouldn’t have had the election in the first place, the in-person election,” as if that was his position all along. ..... Conservative judges on the U.S. Supreme Court followed their ruling with a 5-4 decision that overturned a federal court, which gave voters until April 13 to return their absentee ballots. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of residents, did not receive their ballots by election day and were disenfranchised.”

Another blundering, feckless old white male democrat has shown what he’s got. It ain’t much.

Meanwhile, Bernie has dropped out of the race. So, for the dems it is Joe.


Positive, optimistic mood music: VNV Nation, Perpetual (combines elements of trance, synthpop and electronic body music into futurepop)